"I AM the Way, the Truth..."
Look Up: John
14:1-6
(Copyright 2006)
INTRODUCTION:
A few weeks back I received an e-mail about registering your cell phone number
to prevent telemarketers from calling you and using up your minutes. Well,
it sounded legit and the registering was simple, so I took a few minutes and
registered my number and sent the e-mail on to me wife so that she could do the
same. Later that night I even heard that same message on the evening news.
WAS THE E-MAIL TRUE OR FALSE? It turned out to be false. Wonder with
what or whom I registered my number and who now has it?
In the last week or two, there was another
e-mail circulating. It said, don’t buy mulch out of
How much false information do we fall for
every day and how carefully do we consider what is true or false and the
ramifications? Now granted, my illustrations are low-level things.
Registering my cell phone number only wasted a few minutes, and I wasn’t
intending to buy any mulch anyway. But what about the big
things—something as important as what we have been talking about for the last
2 weeks-- How to get to heaven? What if you were to find out after the
“fact” that what you thought was true about how to get to heaven was false?
It would be disastrous. Eternity is forever.
In the passage we have been studying,
Jesus talked about going away and told His disciples that they knew the way to
the place where He was going [Jh. 14:4]. Thomas wasn’t letting that
pass. He said that they didn’t know the way because they didn’t know
the place. Jesus here is talking about heaven and He said: “I AM
the Way.”
I have cited a poll that says that
90% of Americans expect to go to heaven. But let’s probe a little
deeper. How are they getting there? Last week we agreed that we need
help in getting to heaven. I don’t know where it is—except up.
This is not just a spot somewhere on earth. This is an off-site location.
I will be making this trip when I am physically dead. I need help.
90% say they are going and all of them need help in getting there. But on
whom or what are they depending. And is what they are depending on True or
False?
Some are depending on getting there
by being good. TRUE or FALSE? False.
Some are depending on what seems
right. We want to be in charge.
There
is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death [Prov.
E.g. I have a pretty good sense of
direction but get turned around sometimes. That’s when I depend on the
road signs.
Some are banking on being sincere on
what seems right. But you can be sincerely wrong. E.g. people going
the wrong way on the Interstate. We are impaired and subject to going the
wrong way.
Some believe it can be a bunch of ways
because truth is broad and relative and everybody is as right as the next
person. To get too narrow and exclusive runs against one of our
greatest virtues today--tolerance. It appears that we are not as concerned
with whether something is true or false as we are with whether we are viewed as
intolerant.
To say that there is one way to
heaven, as Jesus did, in our pluralist society gets quite a response.
Watch
this tape.
Oprah asks the question: “Are you saying that there is only one way…?
[Truth is viewed as broad and everybody is as right as the next person].
What would you have answered? What do you believe? What is your way
to get to heaven? Is your way TRUE OR FALSE? This is serious
business.
Jesus makes an exclusive statement in John 14. It is one of the I AM
statements.
I AM
the Way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me
[v. 6].
Jesus said that. I did not.
TRUE OR FALSE? That is the issue.
When Jesus
made His I AM statements, He claimed to be God. He identified Himself with
the God who appeared to Moses. The Pharisees knew what He was claiming,
because when He made that claim they tried to kill Him [[Jh.
Think about
this: Jesus never claimed to be just a good teacher, just a man of God, or
just a prophet. He claimed to be God and the only way to heaven.
That changes everything. Now you have to make a decision. TRUE OR
FALSE?
If I told you
that I was a good teacher what would you think? A prophet? But if I
said that “I’m God”—would that change how you feel about me? It
would force you to make a decision. If you ever meet anyone who claims to
be God you’ve got 3 choices. He is an idiot, a liar or con-man or is
telling the truth.
Display
the graph.
Is He an idiot? No one ever
spoke like this One. At 12 He astounded the teachers of the law. Is
He a liar? The more a person is like Him, the more honest and genuine they
become.
Others never claimed what He claimed.
Read quote from Lewis in God in the Dock, found in Lindsley, C. S.
Lewis’s Case for Christ, p. 168.
Buddha taught enlightenment but died
seeking more. Jesus said: I AM the light of the world.
Mohammed claimed to be a descendent of Abraham through Ishmael. Jesus said
before Abraham I AM [Jh.
Maybe you say
that all religions say basically the same thing so what difference does it make?
TRUE OR FALSE? False. Religions are very different. For
example:
Hinduism—has
300,000 gods. These represent an impersonal force, Brahma, the One.
The goal is to lose your identity in this ultimate oneness and to become free
from the law of Karma…to be free from continuous reincarnations.
Buddhism—Buddhists
do not worship gods or God. Buddha never claimed to be divine, but rather
is viewed by Buddhists as having attained what they are striving to
attain—spiritual enlightenment, and with, it freedom from the continuous cycle
of life and death. Through meditation [a self-discipline, not praying] a
Buddhist seeks to reach Nirvana—the ending of desire.
Islam—Sees
Jesus as only a prophet—not God. The incarnation is anathema. It
denies the Trinity. God is not personal but totally transcendent. He
would never have a relationship with man. Man is not sinful, needing a
savior. He is “saved” by good works—hoping in the end the good
outweighs the bad, but still you don’t know for sure if you will go to heaven.
Only martyrdom is a guarantee of heaven.
Christianity—Man
is sinful and needs to be reconciled to God, Who is holy. That
reconciliation comes through Jesus Christ, His son, Who revealed the Father and
died on a cross for our sins. Through Jesus we have forgiveness of sin, a
relationship with a loving and powerful God and the gift of eternal life.
All the same?
Absolutely not. These religions are very different.
Also, compared to Christianity every other religion is a do vs. done, works vs.
grace, and human goodness vs. divine righteousness matter.
All religions
cannot be totally true because truth does not contradict itself. And truth
cannot be that broad—only error can be that broad. If truth were that
broad I would have made better grades in school. Teachers were always
looking for the right answer.
Truth is narrow [there is one way on
the Interstate]. Truth is transcultural. 2+2= 4 everywhere.
And Jesus said that He is THE TRUTH. You think that is exclusive—all
religions are exclusive.
E.g. Abdul
Rahman on trail in
Afghanistan
for converting to Christianity.
The issue is truth.
I believe that God stepped into this world in His Son and said THIS WAY.
That Way is clear. It is by grace. It is Through a Person.
Praise God for the Way.
Col. 1:15-23. I Choose Jesus.